About the downloads.

tisdag 28 december 2010

Its time for me to do what every other serious blogg does. A 2010 summary.

Best 2010 American release:Brassic - Voice of freedomIt took them over a year to finally release it but now its here and the silence they recieve outside of the states is not really fair. Buy it and promote it.

Best 2010 Swedish release:Ticking bombs - Crash course in brutalityIts not Perkele and its not Battle scarred and thank good for that. This young band is something everyone should check out.

Best 2010 release over all:On file - Breaking the rulesBest album released by one of my favourite bands it has to be the best of 2010.

Worst 2010 release all over:The 4-Skins - The returnThey called it the return but it was more like a bunch of old fart pissing themselfs in the face.

Best new acts of 2010:The 96 brigade and Yellow stitches.Even though the members from both bands have been in it for some now the bands are new and deliver two completelly different musical styles but equally great.

The release that never came:Murderers row - The bully breedA lot of records got pushed into 2011 but the one that i was looking forward to the most was this one. Wasnt this one supposed to be released in 2009 originally. What the fuck happened does anyone know?

The happening:Sadly enough it was the passing of Kevin Geddes a member of Oxblood and dear friend to many active on the eastcoast. I never talked to the guy myself but i give respect where respect is due.

This years trend:Recordlabels telling bands they are going to print their vinyl but after the band have put their own money and time to record the songs the labels back out leaving the artists in the cold. If you aint got the money to release 100 copies you should not call yourself a recordlabel to start with.

This years addition to my shitlist:Bryan Scorch. Running a mailorder and playing in a band is not the best combination if you want to keep a good reputation for the band and rip people off through your mailorder at the same time. The fact that i you still ripped me off for 50$ after i blocked your paypal acount shows you have some balls but loyal supporters should be more important. Going from a straightedge hardcore kid to a closet Combat 18 supporter doesnt really give you many points in my book neither. Expect all your shit to be uploaded the minute it get pressed. FUCK YOU I STEAL!

onsdag 22 december 2010

Released by Arrest records in 2010. Availible as a free download on their Facebook (and here offcourse).

I have been working the nightshift the last 6 weeks and finally i have 4 days off and what happens... i cant fucking sleep. Well i might aswell do somework here since my restless mind wont let my body sleep even if its 05:00 here in Sweden.

First off all thanks to Jay IRC for sending me this (i refuse to even go near anything called facebook) and also converting the songs into MP3 files. Second, thanks to Arrest records for getting into the christmas spirit by giving shit away for free.

This is basicly the demo i uploaded a few weeks back with 3 extra tracks. I just loved the demo and the new tracks are all of the same quality. I like the sound that they bring to the scene. I was expecting the same hardcore tendensies that every new US band seems to bring but this is pure Punk with one exception... this band actually knows their way around the studio. No brawling, cookiemonster vocalists or garagesound here (not that its anything wrong with that) its all well pollished without getting to radiofriendly.I am really psyched to hear some more from this band in the future9/10

fredag 17 december 2010

Oi!core band from Texas that started back in 2001 with "Scuba" on vocals and guitar, "Little E" on bass and guitar. The band went through a lot of lineup changes in their first years but ended up with the two founding members + Papa John (would later go on to play in Roots of exile) on drums and Steve-O (from Tried & true) on bass.In 2004 they recorded this Mini-CD and did the distribuion all by themselfs and thats probably why it could only be bought from 1 store worldvide when i bought it and not a single soul who's not really, really into US Oi! has ever heard of them. After these recordings Steve-O was kicked out of the band for unknown reasons and they struggled on as a 3-piece band untill in 2006 when the cops closed down their recording studio and Scuba got into a whole heap of legal matters so the band was put to rest for good.

I first heard this band when i watched the Spring broke tour and was blown away by the pure impact they delivered on stage and that same feeling can be heard on the intro to the first track. To bad most other songs turn into some screamo bullshit but they manage to deliver two good songs in M.F.L and Healthcare and i must say i think the drums are really tight the whole record through.A somewhat great record that falls short thanks to annoying vocals and the fact that they charged full price for a Mini-CD.7/10

lördag 11 december 2010

Tracklist:
01. Government warning
02. Can't loose it
03. Four people
04. Better off

Released by Cold front Records in 1997.

This is another one of those records that i have had on my wishlist since i started the site. It has been sold out everywhere and any true confirmation that it even existed is hard to find. But JAY IRC from Down Underground got his paws on it somehow and was kind enough to send it to me.

This record was released at the same time as their Sons of liberty 7'' but the sound is nowhere near. It sound more like a chaotic and poorly executed version of Ox's old band Special forces and except the first song Government warning i found it hard to listen to. To me this release is just pure bullshit and thinking that i have searched for it for years makes it even worse. I almost wish that i never hear this release since it de-glorified my picture of United blood somehow.5/10

onsdag 8 december 2010

Tracklist:
01. Wellington arms
02. Living in America
03. Bordoms a drag
04. It will never end
05. Got to believe

These boys are basicly the loose ends of the Chicago skinhead crew known as Brew & Honour probably more known for their fanzine by the same name then this band. I have never really carred much about zines the last couple of years since its often the same old tired interviews by the same old somewhat succesfull skinheadbands, a couple of 4 sentence reviews and a bunch of photos of the writers and their friends in the pub. Since the miracle of computers came along i think it is an unnecessary part of the scene and the few "new and hot acts" that get featured in the paperzines has probably already been featured on several bloggs and other sites when its time for the paper to get printed.
With that said no i have never read their zine but i have followed their blog for some time now and i really like both their sound and their attitude towards an otherwise to PC infested scene.

The band started in 2007 but its roots has been around since 2002 in their vocalist Erik Scott that played in a band called Violent retaliation and wrote most of these songs for that band. After that band dispatched Erik hooked up with his friend Lauren on guitar and Kevin who had just moved from Seattle on drums. After a couple of shows Laurens boyfriend Rick joined the band on bass and it eventually ended up being just Erik (voc,guit) Kev (drums) Rick (bass).

Their sound can somewhat be described as an Oi!, RnR fusion and before i go on i have to mention the great vocals done by Erik. It just suits the bands sound perfectly and adding both great drums and guiar riffs to that and im sold.
I could go on ranting all day but instead i'll just upload this demo that one of the members sent me. I believe the last song is not supposed to be on th demo but since i dont know where the hell it belongs i added it to the demo.
Someone please give this band a good record deal!!

lördag 4 december 2010

Skark-skin started out as a one-man band from Cali in 2009. The founder, singer, drummer, guitarist, bassplayer and extraordinair Omar Ruiz has nowdays added Bryant on bass and Adrian on drums to the band and judging how good the band sounded on these recordings i cant wait to hear how they sound with a full band and some better recording equipment.I found a lowquality clip on youtube some months ago that i posted here on the site searching for some info on this band but never really got any feedback so i got in contact with Omar through their Myspace. He was kind enough to send me these demo tracks.

Just like Bleach battalion i am surprised how great it can sound with just a single person performing all instruments (both track 3 and 4 is Omar going solo). The best songs though are the once wher he gets some help by his friend Bryant on bass (tracks 1 & 2).Love the attitude and message of the song Oi! the fever and the fact that its a young band doing the song really gives me some hope for the future. Keep your eyes on this bad and lets hope that its here to stay.9/10

torsdag 2 december 2010

Being a longtime fan of Broken Heroes i have been worried the last year of members leaving one after another. But now they seem to have found some sort of stabillity adding one of the founding members of Armed SuspectsScott Davis to their ranks and getting ready to release their first propper release since 2005. I got in contact with Scott to sort some things out.

¤Hello Scott. First of all thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Could you please introduce yourself to the readers.

I play bass and write a majority of the lyrics for Armed Suspects. I am also the new frontman for Broken Heroes. My friends call me Scotty Violence.

¤I know you where one of the original members of Armed suspects but did you play in any other band before hooking up with Jay and the other guys?

Jay and I were in another band together when I first got out of the Marine Corps back in '02. I played guitar, and he played drums. We had an all skinhead line-up with a female singer and a female bass player.People said we sounded like a mixture of Minor Threat, Black Flag and X, but we weren't very good.I quit after a few months to go work for my friend Jim as the cook in his Irish pub; the song "O'Farrell's" was written about that bar. The idea to start Armed Suspects was actually conceived at O'Farrell's one night in December of '03 when Jay told me he wanted to sing for a band, and the bar was our regular post-practice hang-out.

¤How did you get in contact with Broken heroes and what happened to their other singer?

I have been a fan of Broken Heroes for a long time, ever since I heard "Skinhead Rock'n'Roll" on the Backstreets of American Oi! comp back in '96 or '97. When Armed Suspects first started out, we played a lot of gigs with Broken Heroes, and I booked them when I was working as a promoter; we became good friends and have stayed in touch over the years.A record label was supposed to release a four-way split with Armed Suspects, Broken Heroes and two other bands. The label dropped out, and Pete and I got in touch via a mutual friend; we decided to put out the split ourselves, and now Oi! the Boat Records has agreed to help us release it.Anyhow, Pete let me know that there were line-up issues, and I expressed interest in trying out. I've wanted to front a band for a while, and I thought Broken Heroes was a good fit. I went to practice, the guys liked what they heard, and we been plotting world domination ever since.

¤Many people has left Broken heroes the last couple of years. Now with you and Andy from Niblick henbane joining the band can we finally see a dedicated line-up?

As far as line-up changes, I really can't speak for other people and why things didn't work out for them. I like all those guys and wish them nothing but the best.I do believe that Broken Heroes has a really strong line-up now, and that we'll be together as long as possible. We have a really good chemistry, and everyone is enthusiastic about being in this band; we even wrote a song together already. I'm really looking forward to our first gig.

¤The upcomming release on Oi! the boat will be a split LP with both your bands. Tell me more about that.

The upcoming split is called For the Punks & Skins, and it will be released as a 12" record next year, hopefully by early Spring, on Oi! the Boat records. The split features 8 new Armed Suspects songs and 10 Broken Heroes songs -- some old, some new, but an all new recording. The interesting thing about the Broken Heroes' side of the split is that it's the last recording with Fintzy on vocals, and I think it's the best quality recording that Broken Heroes have had to date. We had the split mastered by Mike Kalajian from 30/30 Club Studios, and the sound quality is pretty amazing.I think fans of Broken Heroes will really appreciate that since their previous efforts never really captured their amazing live energy. Other than the first two 7 inches, Broken Heroes haven't had a really great sounding release, and I think this record changes that. I'm really looking forward to seeing it get pressed, because I was a Broken Heroes fan long before I joined the band.

¤Armed suspects has gone through a lot of changes musically since it first got started (thinking mostly about the latest release with Ol' Cheeky Bastards) what sound will you be bringing for this release?

As far as Armed Suspects' sound, this record is similar to the stuff we did on Time Will Tell. This Old Lonely Road, the acoustic split with Ol' Cheeky Bastards, was written, rehearsed and recorded in the span of a month, just to prove to ourselves that we could do it, and it was written with an outlaw country style (i.e. Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, etc.) in mind. The eight songs on this new split range from faster hardcore-influenced stuff to more melodic Oi!/streetpunk stuff. The major change on this split is that Jay wrote a lot of lyrics; he penned "...And On The Speakers," "My Life," and "Broken & Bruised." I generally write the majority of the lyrics for Armed Suspects, but I've always been a big fan of the stuff Jay has written, like "Be A Man" and "Through Hard Times" from Next Stop New Scene, and "For The Kids," "F.I.S.T," and "Working Class Thugs" from Time Will Tell. The stuff Jay wrote for this split is really interesting, and I think a lot of people will be able to relate to it, especially "Broken & Bruised," which is one of my favorite Armed Suspects songs. DJ also contributed lyrics for the song "Leather Tramp," which I think is a really interesting departure from other stuff we've done. It all falls under the banner of punk rock, but I think we're always trying to push ourselves to try new things and explore different approaches to what we're doing. The addition of Kurt on drums has definitely helped to broaden our sound a bit; he's been with us for a while now, and I think he's the most well-rounded drummer we've had and he contributes a lot to the song-writing process.I think the main thing about the Armed Suspects sound is that we've always worn our hearts and our influences on our sleeves, and we've never really been afraid to experiment and do things outside of what would typically be considered Oi! or streetpunk. The only people that write rules for our sound is us, and if we feel like writing a country record, or thrash-metal like "The Noose," or power-metal like "Viking Quest," which is on the new split, we're going to do it, and we're going to do it to the best of our abilities. Hopefully our fans will appreciate it, but we only make music because we love doing it; we're four really good friends who love hanging out together and banging out some songs to break up the monotony of daily life. I think being such good friends is part of the reason we've stuck it out the last 7 years in spite of setbacks and line-up changes. If we were in it for money and accolades, we'd be playing Top 40 radio-friendly shit that appeals to the lowest common denominator, and we probably would have broken up years ago.

¤ I understand your mentality and appretiate your honesty to the stuff you do. With all those musical branches you must have a broad musical influence in the band. Could you name a couple of bands/albums that has influenced you the most.

As a band, our influences are all over the place and it would be hard to nail down a definitive list. However, I think Rancid's "And Out Come the Wolves," Cock Sparrer's "Shock Troops" and The Clash's "London Calling" are integral influences to our sound, but that's just a starting point. There's the obvious hardcore, punk and Oi! bands like The Anti-Heros, Menace, The Bruisers, The Pink Lincolns, Black Flag, Social Distortion, Dead Kennedys and The Oppressed, thrash metal like Nuclear Assault and Slayer, power metal like Riot and Iron Maiden, jazz great Django Reinhardt, alt-country stuff like Lucero and Austin Lucas, the Conan the Barbarian & Rocky soundtracks, Motown, Stax and old soul records, reggae, ska and rocksteady, glam stuff like Slade, The Jook & The Sweet, mod revival stuff like The Jam, Secret Affair & The Aces, straight up rock bands like Rose Tattoo, and a bunch of weird stuff like The Pixies, The Smiths and shit you wouldn't think we listen to at all. All of that stuff informs our sound, and we draw on a wide variety of influences. We all really love music, and I think we filter the best of what we hear and use it to help shape what we do.

Personally, when it comes to playing bass, I'd say I'm most influenced by James Jamerson, the legendary bass player for the Funk Brothers, aka the Motown house band on all those early hits; the dude doesn't get much credit outside of fellow bass players, but he reinvented the art of bass playing and put it in the forefront. Also, Steve Harris from Iron Maiden and Bruce Foxton from the Jam inspire me a lot. I am nowhere near as talented as those guys, but they make me want to be a more creative bass player and a better musician.

As for singing and wanting to front an Oi! band, I'd say Oi! & punk bands like Anti-Heros, Stormwatch, Combat 84, Murderer's Row, The Oppressed, The Bruisers,The 4-Skins, Forced Reality, Sham 69, The Templars, Oxblood, Those Unknown and Beltones, even Broken Heroes prior to me joining the band, and lesser known American Oi! bands like American Noise & the Anti-Socials had an impact on that. I used to go to American Noise practice when they were starting out, and I would screw around and fill in on vocals until Mike showed up; Andre always told me I should sing for a band, and I guess that stuck with me. While I love Armed Suspects and the stuff we do, singing for Broken Heroes means sticking more to my skinhead & Oi! roots and paying homage to those bands that went before while continuing to carry the banner, so to speak.

¤ Now on to the most important question of them all. What do you know about the great holy land of greatnes also known as Sweden?

My knowledge of Sweden is fairly limited. I loved the Swedish Chef on The Muppet Show and the Swedish Bikini Team beer commercials when I was younger, but I've never been to Sweden and I haven't met too many Swedes in my travels. I hear it's a beautiful country though, and I would love to visit, maybe even play a gig there someday.

However, despite my ignorance, I am a huge fan of the Swedish movie LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Låt den rätte komma in); I think it's the best vampire movie ever made, and the American remake doesn't do it any justice whatsoever. I really need to read the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

One of my favorite action movie stars is Dolph Lundgren. Alexander Skarsgard is another great Swedish actor that I like, especially in his portrayal of Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert on the HBO miniseries Generation Kill, and no red-blooded heterosexual man can deny how fucking sexy Malin Akerman was in The Watchmen. Sweden has surely produced some of the world's most beautiful women like Victoria Silvstedt. Mini Anden, Elin Grindemyr and Marina Hedman. I'm sure not every Swedish skirt is a hot piece of ass, but damn, Sweden sure has contributed some nice eye candy to the world.

As far as music, I dig Perkele, The Bones, Bombshell Rocks, The Cliches, The Bristles and a lot of stuff on those Brewed in Sweden comps like Agent Bulldogg, Dim's Rebellion and The Headhunters; I noticed that Swedes generally have a great melodic sensibility that you don't find in a lot of Oi!/streetpunk bands (B: Yeah we tend to focus much on the guitars and no one can deny the impact early Skrewdriver and Templars has given the modern Swedish sound). I also have to admit that I own some Yngwie Malmsteem records. The Sounds are one of the best live bands I've ever seen, and I'd love to put it to Maja Ivarsson in the back of a SAAB or on an IKEA couch while downing some Svedka or Akvavit.

¤Any last words?

Thanks for your interest in Armed Suspects and Broken Heroes. Both bands are working on new material and will be recording again in the near future. I'm excited to be a part of both bands, and hopefully one day we'll get over to Europe and play a couple gigs in Sweden. Keep an eye out for the split on Oi! the Boat records.

Also, an interesting side note: my uncle Phil was briefly married to the famous Swedish pop singer/actress Bibi Johns for a brief period back in the '50s. My understanding is that she was quite a hot piece of ass back then. So there is a connection between our peoples after all. Hahaha!

This right here is two sides of punk that dont often mix to well but this release is one of the most overlooked through the years. Dont think many knows about this album at all even if it features an allstar team of Oi! veterans on one side and one of the few streetpunk bands that i think has made great music even when they went from shaven heads and boots to wearing matching leatherjackets and posing for magazine photos.Pistol grip plays some really catchy streetpunk without getting to radiofriendly. This was their first ever release and has released 4 full-lengths after this one. I will be uploading more of this band in the future.Fully loaded has gone through some lineup changes since their last release replacing Bill with Rollie on lead guitar and John on rhythm guitar. Mike also left and was replaced by Neil "El Chiyon" on drums. Adrian is still here and so is Stan Corona (also made the coverart) so the sound is still the same... but better.

Fully loaded delivers a whole heap of great tracks with a bit of a garage feeling to them. You can easily hear that Pistol grip had better recording equipment when they did the songs and even if Fully loaded sounds a bit hollow at some pint i actually like the echoing feeling that cheap recordings give. Their first song Oi! warning is one of the most livefriendly songs i have heard from the westcoast with great singalong parts in the choruses. They also do a great cover of the old classic I dont need your love and all of the covers that has been made i must say thuis is one of the few hat actually does early Skrewdriver right with an echoing and brutal bass matching Adrians voice. Their last song on the album is a bit more RnR then the rest and something gives me the feeling that they where drunk when they created this song (in a good way).

Pistol grip's songs are of better studioquality and even if they on some points in their carrer have stepped a bit to near the line of pop-punk i know atleast i have always liked them. This being their first release i am surprised how advanced they actually sound. Starting song Crucifixtion poltix sounds like the mother of all skainfluenced streetpunk with Stax solid voice flowing like butter in the sun (what the hell that is supposed to mean). Their song Claustrophobia is my afavourite on this album with some great midipiano tinkling in the backgrounf proving yet again that we need more piano in modern punk!

This album was a big surprise the first time i heard it and if you doubted westcoast streetpunk maybe this album will turn you hardheaded Oi!head around.10/10